I thought Birdman was the biggest piece of shit… I thought it was pretentious. Listen, I’ve seen movies about acting, especially about Broadway — A Chorus Line, All That Jazz — that handled this subject so much better. I think it gets these accolades because actors love to see shit about actors.

After the Oscar telecast last week, he again expressed his dislike for Birdman and its director.

Denise Matthews came up with her stage name after beginning to collaborate with Prince in 1982. According to the April 28, 1983 Rolling Stone cover story “Prince’s Hot Rock,” Mathews explained the process of creating her persona and forming the girl group Vanity 6:

She picked her nickname because “a girl’s best friend is her pride,” she says. Like her cohorts, Brenda and Susan, Vanity gave a demo tape of her songs to Prince a year ago. “He said there were a couple other girls whose minds seemed to run alongside mine,” she says. Prince then arranged to bring Vanity, a twenty-two-year-old former model from Toronto, to Minneapolis to meet the other two, flying Brenda in from Boston. Soon, the three were writing songs like “Drive Me Wild” and “Nasty Girls,” in which Vanity coos, “I can’t control it/I need seven inches or more.”

Posted below is a clip of Vanity 6 opening for Prince in Bloomington, Minnesota during his tour to support his breakthrough album 1999.

After this early success, Vanity was successfully lured away from Prince by music mogul Berry Gordy, and signed a deal with MoTown Records in 1984. Posted below is a press clipping from a 1985 appearance in Canada to promote her debut solo album, “Wild Animal.”

Vanity left to embark on a solo career before the filming of the movie Purple Rain, in which she was originally supposed to star as Prince’s love interest. William Blinn, the executive producer of the TV series Fame, wrote the first draft of the script with her in mind. In another Rolling Stone cover story, from August, 30th, 1984, titled, “Prince Scores: A Hit Album, A Hot Movie,” they describe the writing process and Vanity’s mysterious departure from the project:

Blinn began pounding out a script called Dreams, a dark story in which the parents of the Kid — the character to be played by prince — were both dead, the mother dispatched by the father who in turn killed himself,. Prince’s Minneapolis music scene was in here too and so was the beautiful Vanity, lead crumpet with Vanity 6. Born in Ontario of Scottish and Eurasian parents (her original name was Denise Matthews). Vanity had been a model and sometime nudie actress who, under the name D.D. Winters, appeared in such Canadian-made films of the early Eighties as Terror Train and Tanya’s Island. Vanity was also Prince’s girlfriend – or one of the them – and in Dreams she was to play the stabilizing influence in the Kid’s otherwise chaotic life.

No one will say why she left – rumors range around money, ego and a faded relationship with the film’s diminutive star.

I needed one person to love me, and he needed more,” she says of Prince, conceding that she hasn’t even seen Purple Rain, because “it would bring back old memories, and I don’t want to cry.

Vanity released two albums and starred in a string of feature films and movies for television throughout the rest of the 80s. Her film debut was in the MoTown produced, big budget, Kung Fu feature, The Last Dragon in 1985. Her performance was well received. In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, film critic Roger Ebert said:

Of Vanity, let it be said that she has the sort of rapport with the camera that makes us like her instantly; she has a sunny smile, and what can only be described as a sort of inner happiness, and in the middle of this plot about gangsters and night clubs and bloody fights, she floats serenely, a joy to behold. In less than 12 months, Prince has introduced two electrifying actresses, Appolonia Kotero from “Purple Rain” and now Vanity.

The Last Dragon Trailer (1985):

52 Pick-Up Trailer (1986):

Never Too Young To Die TV spot (1986):

Deadly Illusion Trailer (1987):

Action Jackson Trailer and clip, featuring Vanity singing the song, “Undress.” which was also released as a single (1988):

By 1992, Vanity had overcome some of her struggles and appeared on the The Joan Rivers Show to talk about her renewed faith in Christianity.

During a 2007 appearance on The Howard Stern Show to promote his book The Heroin Diaries, which detailed his excessive partying and use of illicit drugs, Nikki Six, the bassist for the band Mötley Crüe, talked about his relationship with Vanity at the height of her drug addiction:

In 2010, she appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network to promote her autobiography, “Blame it On Vanity.” In the clip below she says:

I was so miserable the entire time that I was Vanity. I spent so many days and nights crying, hating who I’d become. I knew I needed to get out, but I didn’t know how to get out.

Recognizable pop hits have always been used in TV commercials and movie trailers as a shortcut to form an instant connection with the audience. In 1987, The Beatles‘ Apple Records label famously sued Nike for their use of the Lennon-McCartney song “Revolution” in a popular TV spot for the Nike Air sneaker.

When it comes to film and television advertising, the stakes are very high to create a sense of familiarity that leads to a money-making opening weekend at the box office or high ratings. If a hit song is perceived as a successful marketing tool, it’s likely to be used and re-used many times over. Last year Bruno Mars‘ “Uptown Funk” was featured in countless movie trailers, TV spots and commercials such as this one for Propel Electrolyte Water:

So far this year, two recently released trailers for the films, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring Tina Fey and How to Be Single, starring Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson, feature Elle King’s “Ex’s & Oh’s.”

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Trailer:

How to Be Single Trailer:

Another popular trend in TV and movie advertising is the use of cover versions of famous songs, sometimes slowed down for a more dramatic effect. Posted below is a video montage of some of the most prominent examples. Featured in chronogical order is “Sweet Child of Mine” in The Last House on Left (2009), “Happy Together” in The Great Gatsby (2013), “Addicted to Love” in Endless Love (2014), “Crazy in Love” in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), “Landslide” in Suffragette (2015), “California Dreamin'” in San Andreas (2015), and “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016).

My brother Alejandro (the other writer of Hollywood Vulture) and I, parodied the use of slowed down songs in a mock trailer for the Paranormal Activity parody, Bearanormal Activity 2. It begins with an ominous sounding version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

The Holidays are the greatest gift to theme parks. It gives them a chance to repackage what is essentially the same experience. For example, Universal Studios in October is a lot like Universal Studios in June, except with zombies and a smoke machine. Either way, you still ride “Minion Mayhem” twice. So it goes with Christmas, too — or as they call it, “Grinchmas!” It’s a simple formula that works. All Universal has to do is decorate the park a little bit differently and then, in a big marketing push, capitalize on the imagery from their large canon of movies to get people excited. I’m actually shocked they haven’t used this formula for Valentine’s Day yet. Can’t you just picture a Because I Said So maze or The Story of Us stunt show?

Back in 2009, Lilly Allen declared that she had enough of being a super successful pop star and was finished with the music business. At the time she said:

I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record.

Luckily for fans of sarcastic pop music and hardcore twerking (which should be almost everyone) Allen is back with a new single and video, “Hard Out Here.” Last time out, with her album It’s Not Me, It’s You, most of Allen’s songs were about how annoyed she was with all the guys she dated. Now, after a hiatus during which she got married and had two kids, she’s annoyed with the music industry, singers that shake their ass (aka Miley Cyrus and her foam finger) and people telling her to get in better shape.

At the beginning of the video, Allen is layed out on the operating table, while her agent expresses his disgust at her body.

Agent: Jesus, how does somebody let themselves get like this, huh?

Surgeon: Lack of self-discipline I supppose.

Lilly Allen: Um, I had two babies.

This is followed by a twerk-a-thon, during which Allen sings about being too smart to use her sex appeal.

Don’t need to shake my ass for you cause I’ve got a brain.

Allen gets to have her cake and eat it too. She calls out the sexism in the music industry while looking as hot as possible. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it and then be ready to pose for the cover of Vogue. Good to have Allen back and, as her creepy agent says in the video, “in fighting shape,” to take on that responsibility.

Thanks to Jen. J. Walker for sending author, podcaster and performer Julie Klausner a link to our article about actress Shelley Duvall. The article is titled “Shelley Duvall: The Update You Didn’t Want” and based on Klausner’s reaction to to it, on the latest episode of her podcast “How Was Your Week,” she clearly didn’t want to find out that, as of 2009, the actress was living in Texas and claming that there were, “aliens living in her body.” The link was sent to Klausner after she and Rachel Lichtman revealed “their mutual desire to be pals with Shelley Duvall,” during a recent segment on “How Was Your Week.”